In the Showa period, young people had dreams about cars.
Who remembers that Ken and Mary Skyline commercial? You must be old people now....
Riding in a Sca-G or Fairlady was a dream come true.
The Toyota 2000GT was totally out of reach.
I also longed to drive a Mazda rotary coupe or a Toyota or Honda S800.
Those of us who were not rich drove Sunny or Corolla coupes...and they were used (lol).
Anyway, young people had their dream cars.
The boys would go to the Tokyo Motor Show and drive around the venue.
The cars were getting faster and faster with more horsepower every year.
When I was old enough, I would dress up in my best clothes and take my girlfriend for a drive.
I would put on some Yumi or Hi-Fi set and when she complimented my driving, I would step on the gas pedal even harder.
I was still living in a rabbit hutch, but my heart was still brocade.
I hummed and hummed as I polished the car and thought about where our next date would be.
I didn't have much money ahead of me, though.
Young people in the Heisei and Reiwa eras do not dream about cars.
The standard of status has been raised, and girls are not satisfied unless you drive a new Porsche or Ferrari.
Now girls are not impressed or interested in a guy who drives around in a nice car.
They think that the luxury cars were bought with the money they made in the stock market anyway....
That is certainly true.
Toyota's former president Akio Toyoda's sense of crisis has been persistent.
The young people of the Heisei and Reiwa eras do not dream of cars, do not drive them, and do not buy them.
The youth of the Heisei and Reiwa eras place the highest priority on "cost performance.
It is true that cars are not worth the cost.
The postwar Showa generation is often ridiculed for saying "Shouwakayo~!" attitude.
However, the postwar Showa generation had dreams of cars and did many foolish things with them.
They also did a lot of useless things.
Young people of the Heisei and Reiwa generations are too afraid to fall in love for fear of being a party to sexual harassment.
Young people will grow old in no time at all while they are worried about their pensions, which are shrinking in the future, and saving only to save money.
When you look back on your youth, you may not need a car, but I hope you will have good memories of doing stupid and wasteful things.